Through the centuries when one portrays athletes taking part in sporting events, paintings of men running and holding torches, silhouettes of men wrestling with each other, and photographs of male football players making the goal usually comes to mind. However, the first thing that the #BigBMeetUp founder Bosco Menezes thought when organising a talk show to celebrate Qatar National Sports Day was to fill the panel with prominent female athletes.
The first ever 'Virtu-Real' and the 34th episode of the weekly virtual #bigbmeetup in its seventh edition was hosted at the International School of London (ISL) Qatar recently. It carried the theme of ‘Championing Arab Sportswomen’ to mark the QNSD celebrations. Bosco Menezes said in his opening remarks: “I am virtually over the moon with the success of our first ever 'Virtu-Real' meetup and it came at a perfect time marking its third anniversary of Qatar's popular community outreach initiative (#bigbmeetup).
“ISL Qatar was a great host. To hold this programme at their spanking new pool made perfect sense since we were bringing in QNSD and we have a two-time Olympic swimmer from the Qatari national team in our panel.”
He was followed by Dr Sergio Pawel, ISL Qatar’s head of school, and Noor al-Qaedi, youth advocate of Education Above All, who delivered short speeches on how sports and education work side-by-side to develop the youth of today.
Ahmed al-Shaharani, endurance athlete and moderator of the show, was surrounded by four women, who are the very definition of female empowerment in the region. Reem al-Muftah, fitness instructor and wellness advocate, started the show by sharing how she fell in love with sport and the idea of taking care of her body. She also described how her devotion to advocating for well-being further ignited when she entered motherhood.
Nada Wafa, two-time Olympian and member of the Qatar National Swimming Team, then told her story about what got her into swimming. Her parents — particularly her father — triggered her passion for the highly competitive water sport. Mariam Farid, hurdler and a Qatar National Team athlete, described how the intensity of the games and the exciting life of a sportswoman drove her competitive spirit to keep achieving more in her career. On the other hand, Dr. Jowhara al-Qahtani, surgeon and founder of Run the World Qatar, stated that running became her escape from her very demanding job as a surgeon.
As the show continued, all four women found two common things about how they got into sport and wellness: the opportunities that their respective schools presented to them and the support of their fathers. It is amazing to see how these simple two key factors helped them kick-off their journeys towards their careers.
Dr Sergio Pawel concluded the conversation by sharing the other side of a female athlete’s story: the father’s perspective. At a noticeably young age, his two daughters were intrigued by fencing and eventually started to compete in international events. He shared how it was a privilege and a pleasure to see his children’s characters form and develop and be empowered by sport. Dr Pawel added: “It is very easy to support athletes. You just have to say Yes.”
 
 
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